SPECIAL THANKS TO BENJI DINO AND HIS CREW OF PLAYTESTERS!

BIG THANKS to all of you for what has essentially been a two-year wait for this update. These past two years have been incredibly difficult and challenging for me but with a lot of perseverance, dedication, and love for tokusatsu and TTRPGS I’ve managed to pull through and give you what I hope to be the last major update for this game.

For now, the documentation for this game will reside here on this gitbook as it has been formatted for online play (or physical play with digital devices).

Everything included in this update has been thoroughly playtested and is in the process of playtesting. However, even with everything being said and done I am happy to say that me and my friends have been playing this as our main system for roughly the past year or so.

It is very much a labour of love and I am fully committed to continuing development. Lumen Ryder being what it is, it’s definitely put me on a scrappier, messier game design journey than previous projects - a lot like our favourite tokusatsu series working with minimal budget, pressed deadlines, and limited resources.

In the meantime, I will continue to make updates to this Gitbook as and when I can. I hope you enjoy this update as much as I’ve enjoyed making and playing it.

Here are some important things to note:

Playing out your stories is now wholly GM-less, or rather all players involved will have equal opportunities to create the world together and flesh it out. Players are encouraged to play multiple characters, shifting perspectives from the Ryder Team, Evil Organization, and other inhabitants of the world.

Think of it more of a soap opera/melodrama generator with an in-depth combat system rather than a straightforward “dungeon crawler” where enemies exist for fighting. Now, every character (no matter how big or small) has the chance to be developed and explored - not just the heroes but especially the villains and the side characters.

Additionally, locations now play a big role in the story, being transformed as the characters themselves transform in both dramatic and violent ways. In fact, creating a location functions a lot like creating a character and you will often go back to the same few locations over and over (it’s a lot like how tokusatsu series feature the same few sets in every episode).

So above all else, I think the best way to approach this game is to treat it like a worldbuilding/soap opera game where larger-than-life characters duke out with each other in high-stakes, life-or-death situations - slowly being transformed by their experiences and feeling more and more real the longer you sit with them.

Here are some things we’ve added:

• Playtested everything, from head to toe (big thanks to Benji Dino for his help)
• Created play materials for easy referencing and use in play
• Adjusted combat for balancing
• Added a whole bunch of new Boons, Drawbacks, Specials, and other goodies for combat
• Overhauled story/narrative play mechanics for GM-less play, ensemble storytelling, and worldbuilding
• Overhauled Ally play in combat

Here are some things we will commit to fulfilling in the future:

• Editing of the whole document (I’m not completely satisfied with how scenes are written, even if they’ve run quite well in playtests)
• Writing up and adding in depth instructions for combat and character creation outside of the play materials
• Creating offline/printable sheets and materials
• Release setting supplements for AUSTEN: PRIDE & PREHISTORY, BUIFUIMI, and DUNGEONS & DINING
• Custom characters and art for SUPER BACKERS
• Illustrations by an array of incredibly talented and diverse group of artists
• Preparation for print release
• And as always, playtesting playtesting playtesting!